EU drugs agency finds AstraZeneca jab 'safe and effective' – latest updates

Thursday, March 18, 2021

EU drugs agency finds AstraZeneca jab 'safe and effective'

The EU's drugs regulator has said that it found the AstraZeneca vaccine was "safe and effective" and was not linked to an increased risk of blood clots.

Around a dozen countries had suspended the use of the vaccine and were awaiting the outcome of an investigation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) safety committee.

"The committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion: this is a safe and effective vaccine," Emer Cooke, the head of the Amsterdam-based EMA, told a press conference.

US to send 4M doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico, Canada in loan deal

The United States has plans to send roughly 4 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries, an administration official told Reuters.

Mexico will receive 2.5 million doses of the vaccine and Canada is to receive 1.5 million doses, the official said.

"We're lending a portion of our releasable doses of AstraZeneca vaccine," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "We only put the virus behind us if we're helping our global partners."

Italy reports over 24,900 new cases

Italy has reported 423 deaths against 431 the day before, the Health Ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 24,935 from 23,059 the day before.

Some 353,737 tests were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 369,084, the ministry said.

Italy has registered 103,855 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 3.3 million cases to date.

UK reports 6,303 new cases

The United Kingdom has reported 95 new deaths, down from 141 a day earlier, and deaths over the past seven days were a third lower than the week before, official daily data showed.

The country reported 6,303 new cases of the disease, up from 5,758 a day earlier. The seven-day total was down by 3 percent.

The data showed that a total 25.735 million people had received a first dose of vaccine and 1.879 million people had received a second dose.

More than half of all adults in England have had their first dose of vaccine, the health service said earlier. 

US nears Biden's goal of 100M shots in 100 days

President Joe Biden is set to highlight his administration’s push to dramatically expand distribution of vaccines, as the nation is on the cusp of meeting his goal of injecting 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office.

The US has three vaccines that received emergency use authorisation – Pfizer, Moderna and the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

The US is injecting an average of about 2.2 million doses each day. The pace of vaccination is likely to dramatically expand later this month with an expected surge in supply of the vaccines.

Mexico seizes fake Sputnik vaccine bound for Honduras

Mexican customs officials have seized purported vials of the Sputnik V vaccine en route to Honduras that the Russian entity that bankrolled the vaccine’s development said were fake.

The seizure came aboard a private plane in the Gulf coast state of Campeche, according to a statement from Mexico’s tax agency late Wednesday.

Customs agents and soldiers found 1,155 vials containing more than 5,700 doses inside two coolers packed with ice and sodas. The crew and Honduran passengers were turned over to the Attorney General’s Office.

France considering four-week lockdown for Paris 

The French government has said its considering putting the greater Paris region under a four-week lockdown to rein in the pandemic, which is putting the hospital system under heavy strain, BFM TV reported.

France reported 34,998 new cases of the virus, down from 38,501 on previous day, and 91,679 deaths, up by 268. 

WHO Europe urges countries to keep using AstraZeneca vaccine

The benefits of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine far outweigh any risks, and countries across Europe should continue to use it to help save lives in the pandemic, the World Health Organization's European director Hans Kluge has said.

Kluge noted that Europe's medicines regulators are investigating a small number of cases of blood clots in the region that have prompted around a dozen EU governments to suspend use of the AstraZeneca shot.

"As of now, we do not know whether some or all of the conditions have been caused by the vaccine or by other coincidental factors," he said, adding, "At this point in time, however, the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine far outweigh its risks – and its use should continue, to save lives."

EU regulator reviews AstraZeneca shot and blood clot links

The world is awaiting a decision from Europe’s top medical regulator on its investigation into whether there is any evidence to show the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is linked to a small number of blood clots reported in people across the continent.

The European Medicines Agency's expert committee is set to announce the results of its investigation later Thursday.

Earlier this week, more than a dozen countries including Germany, France, Spain and Italy suspended immunisation using the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of unusual blood clots in several people among the 17 million who have received at least one dose in Europe.

Poland reports 27,278 cases

Poland has reported 27,278 new daily virus cases, according to health ministry data, the highest number so far this year.

In total, the country of 38 million has reported 1,984,248 cases and 48,388 deaths.

Germany reports biggest rise of cases in two months

The number of confirmed virus cases in Germany has increased by 17,504 to 2,612,268, the biggest daily rise since January 22, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

The reported death toll rose by 227 to 74,132, while the number of new cases per 100,000 people over seven days rose to 90, compared to 86 a day earlier.

New Zealand economy posts record decline in 2020

New Zealand's economy has shrunk at a record rate of 2.9 percent in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic, official data showed.

Statistics New Zealand said the economy contracted just one percent in the final quarter of 2020 but a virus-induced recession earlier in the year meant the annual fall was the highest on record.

"The decline in annual gross domestic product is largely due to the effects of the Alert Level Four national lockdown earlier in 2020," it said.

Widespread ageism worsened by pandemic – UN

Ageism is widespread worldwide and stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination based on age have only been amplified by the pandemic, the United Nations said.

The coronavirus crisis has wreaked a devastating toll on older people and solidarity between the generations will be crucial to the global recovery, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

In a joint report, four UN agencies warned that discrimination linked to age was pervasive throughout society, and stressed that it is a problem that does not just impact older people.

Bulgaria announces nationwide restrictions amid resurge

Bulgaria will close schools, restaurants and shopping malls for 10 days from March 22 as it battles a surge in infections that have stretched its hospitals, the health minister said.

The Balkan country, which is due to hold a national election on April 4, reported 4,201 new cases, with 7,804 people in hospitals, including 609 in intensive care. There were 136 deaths related to the pandemic in the past 24 hours.

In total, the country of 7 million people has reported 291,769 coronavirus cases and 1 1,715 deaths.

Russia logs 9,803 cases

Russia has reported 9,803 new virus cases, including 1,934 in Moscow, pushing the national case tally to 4,428,239 since the pandemic began.

The government coronavirus taskforce said that 460 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking its death toll to 93,824.

UK vaccine roll-out to be slower than hoped, deliveries to pick up from May

Britain has said that global supply bumps meant its vaccine roll-out would be slower than hoped in coming weeks but it expected deliveries to increase again in May, June and July.

British Health officials warned on Wednesday that the world's fastest big economy roll-out of the vaccine would face a significant reduction in supplies from March 29.

Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca Plc said their delivery schedules had not been impacted, and Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick refused to be drawn on whether the issue was due to a problem with supply from India.

T20 World Cup regional qualifiers postponed due to pandemic

Three regional qualifying tournaments for the men's Twenty20 World Cup in Australia next year have been postponed because of the pandemic, the governing International Cricket Council (ICC) said.

All three tournaments, originally to be played next month, would now be played in October with the Asia A qualifiers in Kuwait while South Africa hosts the two African events.

Ukraine's cases exceed 1.5 million

The number of virus cases in Ukraine has exceeded 1.5 million with 29,253 deaths, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.

Ukraine has faced a sharp jump in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, which Prime Minister Denys Shmygal called a "third wave" of the pandemic.

On Wednesday, Ukraine registered a record daily high of 289 coronavirus-related deaths and the death toll remained at a high level of 267 on Thursday, Stepanov said on Facebook.

Papua New Guinea records five new deaths

Papua New Guinea has reported five new deaths and 128 new cases, as concern grows about low testing rates and surging cases threaten to overwhelm overstretched hospitals in the Pacific island nation.

Australia has pledged 8,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be sent urgently to its northern neighbour to protect health workers.

Tents were airlifted from Australia by the Australian Defence Force on Wednesday to provide triage facilities for patients outside the Port Moresby General Hospital, where 100 staff are reported to have fallen ill, the ADF said.

Pakistan player tests positive 

A member of the Pakistan squad set to travel to South Africa next week has tested positive for the virus, the country's cricket board (PCB) said.

The PCB named a 35-member squad last week to play three one-dayers and four Twenty20 Internationals in South Africa before they move to Zimbabwe for two tests and three 20-overs matches.

The squad are assembling in Lahore on Thursday before a training camp begins on Friday. They will play a couple of intra-squad 50-overs matches before leaving for South Africa on March 26.

India's richest state suffers surge in cases

New infections in India have risen by the most in more than three months as a second wave of the epidemic gathered momentum, with Maharashtra, the country's richest state, accounting for two-thirds of the latest daily tally.

Home to India's commercial capital Mumbai, the western state reported 23,179 of the country's 35,871 new cases in the past 24 hours, and the fast-spreading contagion in major industrial areas raised risks of companies' production being disrupted.

Japan to lift Tokyo area state of emergency on Sunday

The Japanese government's advisory panel on coronavirus measures has approved a plan to let the state of emergency expire in the Tokyo area as scheduled on March 21, while the capital's governor warned citizens not to let down their guard.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had flagged the move on Wednesday, saying the availability of hospital beds had improved in Tokyo and its three neighbouring prefectures, where restrictions have remained since early January.

Covid may become 'seasonal', UN says

Covid-19 appears likely to develop into a seasonal disease, the United Nations, cautioning though against relaxing pandemic-related measures simply based on meteorological factors.

In its first report, an expert team tasked with trying to shed light on one of those mysteries by examining potential meteorological and air quality influences on the spread of Covid-19, found some indications the disease would develop into a seasonal menace.

The 16-member team set up by the UN' World Meteorological Organization pointed out that respiratory viral infections are often seasonal, "in particular the autumn-winter peak for influenza and cold-causing coronaviruses in temperate climates."

"This has fuelled expectations that, if it persists for many years, Covid-19 will prove to be a strongly seasonal disease," it said in a statement.

Modelling studies anticipate that transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease, "may become seasonal over time."

Covid reinfection rare, more common over 65: study

Surviving Covid-19 protects most people against reinfection for at least six months, but elderly patients are more likely to be laid low by the virus a second time, researchers have reported.

An assessment of reinfection rates in Denmark last year showed that just over half a percent of people who tested positive for Covid during the first wave from March to May did so again during the second wave, from September to December.

Among these, the researchers found that initial infection with Covid-19 was likely to bestow 80 percent protection from reinfection among under-65s, but that dropped to just 47 percent in older people.

"We did not identify anything to indicate that protection against reinfection declines within six months of having Covid-19," said Daniela Michlmayr, a researcher at the Staten Serum Institute in Denmark and co-author of a study in The Lancet.

Turkey to receive 4.5M doses of BioNTech vaccine

Turkey’s health minister has said that 4.5 million doses of the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the country this month.

Speaking after a meeting of the country’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, Fahrettin Koca said the first 58,000 doses of the vaccine, which will be used in tests, have arrived in Turkey.

Koca said that “4.5 million more doses will arrive this month to be administered. Tests of the vaccine will be completed till then.”

He added that people aged between 60-65 yeas will begin vaccinations vaccinated next week.

Greece records highest daily number of cases

Greece has registered 3,465 new coronavirus infections during the past 24 hours, marking the highest daily figure since November 12, when it had recorded 3,316 cases.

The nationwide tally of cases now stands at 227,247 since the start of the pandemic, according to the National Public Health Organization (EODY).

Of 3,465 cases, 1,701 were detected in Attica region.

Fifty-six new deaths were confirmed, bringing the total of pandemic victims to 7,252.

China reports 6 new cases

China has reported six new mainland Covid-19 cases on March 17, up from four cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Thursday.

The National Health Commission said in a statement all of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to six from 15 a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 90,066, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.

Brazil sets record 90,000 cases

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has said he was happy that supporters have been staging anti-social distancing protests, on the same day as the country registered more than 90,000 new Covid-19 cases for the first time.

The infections record came one day after Brazil posted a separate record for deaths related to the virus, more than 2,800 in one day.

"Logically, I was happy," Bolsonaro said of the protests in remarks broadcast on social media. "They show that the people are alive ... we want our freedom, we want the world to respect our constitution."